Don't let fear provoke repeat of shameful history

Columnist Pamela Rotner Sakamoto points out that identifying Japanese immigrants and their children with the enemy proved downright wrong during World War II. Confusing Syrian refugees with terrorists today is equally misguided.(Photo: Getty Images)

In the aftermath of the surprise attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, our traumatized nation feared that an invasion of the West Coast was imminent. The media stirred panic that ethnic Japanese were sabotaging facilities and passing intelligence to the enemy. Japanese immigrants — by law ineligible for citizenship — and their American-born children were identified as the enemy. In the name of national security, evacuating them from the area made sense to too many and, as a result, some 120,000 ethnic Japanese — almost two-thirds of whom were actually American citizens — were ordered confined to internment camps right here in the U.S.

Nearly three-quarters of a century later, the world is reeling from Islamic State’s indiscriminate terror in Paris and suspicion toward refugees is palpable and rising. Once again, we are a traumatized nation in fear of a similarly horrific act on our own soil. Panic is being stirred by our own presidential candidates, among others. According to a Bloomberg Politics national poll, 53 percent of Americans believe that the United States should suspend its program to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees. In fact, in the name of national security, the House of Representatives voted to restrict the small refugee influx while more than two dozen governors declared that they would resist resettlement in their respective states. One mayor even compared the threat Syrian refugees pose to the perceived danger that led to the internment of Japanese Americans.

We must do everything in our power to resist what amounts to blanket stereotyping. In 1942, racial hysteria fueled the internment. Yet for all the prosecutions, not one case of espionage was ever uncovered. Xenophobia now spurs ethnic intolerance. Yet since 9/11, according to the Migration Policy Institute, only three of 784,000 refugees have been arrested for terror activities.

To be sure, it only takes one suicide bomber to inflict horror. But before we imagine the worst, we should pause to consider how immigrants and their families have regarded and contributed to the United States. History at a time of crisis can guide us.

Take Harry Fukuhara, for example. In 1942, from the confines of an Arizona internment camp, the 22-year-old American-born son of Japanese immigrants volunteered for the incipient Military Intelligence Service that was sending bilingual interpreters and translators to the Pacific to serve as translators and prisoner-of-war interrogators. Owing to circumstances beyond their control, three of Harry’s brothers were in Japan, most likely in the Japanese army. Their mother was living in Hiroshima. On Aug. 6, 1945, Harry was in the Philippines, preparing to land in Japan, when the atomic bomb exploded over his ancestral city.

Harry and his family experienced heart-wrenching challenges, but his allegiance to the United States never faltered. He rose to become one of the first Japanese American colonels in the U.S. Army during a career that spanned half a century. Recognized by both the United States and Japan as a bridge between cultures, he received the Order of the Rising Sun, third class, one of Japan’s most revered decorations, and the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service upon his retirement.

Six thousand other Japanese Americans would serve with the Military Intelligence Service during the war and occupation of Japan. Many enlisted while imprisoned in 10 remote internment camps scattered across the nation’s interior. Some, like Harry, fought for their country when they had immediate family in Japan.

Thousands of others volunteered for the Europe-bound, segregated 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Formed to counter public antipathy of Japanese Americans, the 442nd became the most highly decorated unit of its size in American military history. The late Sen. Daniel Inouye, who lost his arm in the war and was awarded the Medal of Honor for valor, served in the 442nd.

Harry died earlier this year at 95 in Honolulu. And earlier this month the new headquarters of the 500th Military Intelligence Brigade at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii was dedicated in his memory. A patriot, once suspect as the enemy, was honored at a base strafed on Dec. 7, 1941, by planes zeroing in on the Wheeler Army Airfield and Pearl Harbor.

Identifying Japanese immigrants and their children with the enemy proved downright wrong during World War II. Confusing Syrian refugees with terrorists today is equally as misguided. Rejecting Syrian refugees damages our nation’s values, repudiates our immigrants and their children’s sacrifices and tarnishes our noblest aspirations. The late Hawaii Senator Robert “Spark” Matsunaga characterized the Japanese internment as “one great blot on the Constitution.” Let us refrain from spreading the stain all over our national fabric.

Pamela Rotner Sakamoto is the author of "Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds," to be published in January.